In recent years, imaging devices, such as printers and copiers, have begun employing solid ink, provided in the form of ink sticks or solid-ink pellets. In solid-ink devices, solid-ink pellets are stored in a hopper, from where they are extracted and fed to the imaging device. A heater, such as a grate heater melts the pellets, and the liquid ink then flows through the grate openings into an ink reservoir. The reservoir further distributes ink to print heads during image formation.
It may happen, however, that solid-ink pellets are not uniformly or consistently extracted from the hopper, leading to inconsistent solid-ink pellet delivery and resultant inconsistent image formation. Flow problems can produce heaps of solid-ink pellets on the grate heater, for example, creating lumps, which melt irregularly. Melting problems lead to inconsistent ink flow, which in turn affects image formation.
Therefore, extraction of solid-ink pellets needs to be maintained and carried out uniformly and melt all the extracted pellets with a consistent rate for optimum results.
In current practice, no solution exists that uniformly extracts pellets and melts them efficiently. It's therefore desirable to have a small and a cost effective solution for the delivery of ink in an image forming apparatus that operates in a controlled manner.